


The Curious Girl

by CobaltStargazer



Category: Big Love
Genre: F/F, Making Out, Reluctant Affection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 02:17:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2675165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobaltStargazer/pseuds/CobaltStargazer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Margene sees more than she should. She can't help it if she wants to find out more, can she?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Curious Girl

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to _Stranger Things Have Happened_. It isn't totally necessary to read that first, but it will give you context.

It wasn't that Margene had intended to spy on Barbara, because she hadn't. They had a tenuous sort of peace between them, but the younger brunette knew that Barb was distrustful of her despite having accepted her into the family. It was different with Nicki, who would openly scoff at her, and then both of them would go to the level-headed first wife to get her on their respective sides. When Margene was feeling less than charitable, she thought Nicki was snotty, but Nicki's snottiness was better than Barb's strained politeness when they were in the same room.

So snooping had been the last thing she'd intended. It just sort of...happened.

She'd been out shopping for clothes, and she'd gone to an unfamiliar mall because she'd heard they had different stores there. She'd spotted Barb having lunch with an attractive, well-dressed blonde. The woman was unfamiliar to her, and she had initially approached in order to say hello. Her footsteps had faltered when she'd realized how cozy the two of them had looked. Friendly, with lots of smiling. Margene had wondered if the blonde was one of Barbara's friends from work, because she couldn't remember the older woman being so open and warm around the house. Not even with Bill.

The clincher, though, the thing that had made the younger brunette turn around and hurry away from the small porch attached to the cafe the two women had been eating at, was that the blonde leaned over and kissed Barb. First on the cheek, then on the mouth. And the kiss on the mouth lasted longer than it should have. Margene's blush hadn't subsided until she'd been well away. She may have been young, but she was not naive. 

She considered telling Bill, then decided against it. She didn't even think about mentioning it to Nicki. The last thing she wanted to do was throw the house, the family, into an uproar. And the blush hadn't been an _entirely_ unpleasant one. Margene was less traditional than the other wives, a little less bound to the Church. The tense nature of her relationship with Barb aside, she admired her. 

She invited herself over one evening, while the husband they shared was out of the house. This was not a conversation for men to overhear. Margene loved Bill despite the age difference, and she respected Barbara. And if her stomach was taut with nerves, that was something she was ignoring.

"What's her name?"

"Hmm?"

Barb was distracted, standing at the dishwasher stacking plates in the bottom rack. She probably wouldn't have admitted it, but she didn't mind having Margene over. The younger brunette was a little silly sometimes, a little scattered, but she wasn't bad company. She started on the silverware, still focused on the task at hand.

"What is who's name?"

"The woman I saw you with. The one with the nice clothes." Margene was eating chocolate ice cream out of a blue bowl. "The one you were kissing."

And damn it, but she'd _known_ lunch had been a risk, even on neutral ground. Barbara continued to look into the open dishwasher, and she searched for an explanation. She should have known the little brat hadn't just come over to talk. A long silence took place. If she admitted it, Bill would probably hear about it next. If she _didn't_ admit it, God knew what Margene might do. Finally, the older woman went back to putting utensils into the plastic basket, exhaling a quiet breath.

"She's just a friend." She could feel the imprint of Erin's mouth when she said it, on her lips and elsewhere on her body. The blonde was probably already back in D.C. by now. She'd been scheduled to leave that afternoon. The lunch they'd had had been goodbye. And now idiot Margene had found out about it. That meant it was no longer hers, which was all she had wanted.

"I'm not _dumb_ , Barb. I know you think I am, but I'm not. Maybe I'm not as smart as Nicki, but..."

The younger brunette's voice was a little muffled because she was looking down, and the spoon scraped against the inside of the bowl as she scooped up some more ice cream. She looked at her sister-wife out of the corner of her eye. The silence lingered until the door of the dishwasher snicked shut.

"I never said you were dumb." Barbara's tone was annoyed. 

Margene shrugged. "You didn't have to. Nicki says it sometimes, but you never do because you don't have to."

The older woman didn't move towards the table, take a chair for herself. This was her house, her kitchen, and she wasn't going to feel guilty in her own damned kitchen. She looked Margie over from where she stood, leaned back against the counter. 

"I don't know what you think you know," she said evenly. "But you're in no position to question me. What you saw, that was grown-up business."

Margene dropped her gaze back to the frozen treat in the bowl, and she said, "I was coming over to say hi, and then I saw...that. I was so red-faced when I got back home that it was like I'd been sunburned. It made me feel..."

She fell silent, ate another spoonful of ice cream, discomfited. She was unable to put it into words, why she'd blushed so hard and practically run back to the car. Barb was a formidable woman, the glue that held their family unit together. Bill might have been the husband, _their_ husband, but Barbara's strength in facing and surviving the disease that might have killed her, then agreeing to take two other women into her marriage was something Margene felt an almost uncomfortable admiration for. Soft but strong, maybe.

"She was really pretty. Kinda elegant." The younger brunette was blushing again.

Well, _hell_.

Later, Barbara would tell herself that it was a moment of insanity, one brought on by the brief freedom of having something outside of her marriage that no one else could touch. She would tell herself that and believe it. Because the alternative, that Margie was possibly _not_ an annoying pest, was something she wasn't ready to admit yet.

"Margene."

The youngest of the sister-wives lifted her gaze, and Barb had this expression on her face that she'd never seen. The ring on her hand glittered under the fluorescent light in the kitchen as she held it out. 

"Come here for a second."

The chair scraped back quietly, and her fingers interlocked with Barbara's as she came closer. She had the fleeting thought that the dishwasher hadn't been started yet. Barb was only an inch taller than she was. Her free hand came to rest on the other woman's hip.

The kiss, when it came, was soft and warm and tasted like chocolate. Barbara almost managed to keep her tongue out of it. Margene quivered against her, as nervous and skittish as she'd ever been. Was it disloyal to kiss back?

When it ended, the younger woman's back was flush against the refrigerator, and Barb took a half-step backwards. The quiet in the kitchen was deafening.

"Don't tell anybody. Promise me."

Margene shook her head, quickly and silently, and she meant it, she'd take the secret to her grave. Barbara's _and_ her own. The older woman smiled at her.

"C'mon," she said, her tone more approachable than the younger brunette had ever heard it be. "Get the detergent out of the lower cabinet there, and we can get these dishes going."


End file.
